Technology in the American Classroom

There’s no denying that technology has grown to play a major role in education and learning. Students are using laptops, tablets, and smartphones to research, complete, and even collaborate on assignments, both in and outside of the classroom. Timothy D. Snyder and Thomas L. Friedman both have written articles expressing their opposing opinions on technology in the classroom. Timothy Snyder is a Professor of History at Yale University who has written five different award-winning books. In his article, “Why Laptops Are Distracting America’s Future Workforce”, Snyder explains to students and teachers why he is against technology in the classroom. Thomas Friedman is a reporter and columnist for The New York Times, author of six award-winning

Technology connects people from all corners of the world. Inventions like the web and the internet has been heralded as the greatest inventions of man. The twenty first century is a fast paced world, with information available at a person’s fingertips. With this new drastic change in society, advocates of education reformation, like Cathy Davidson, pushes for education to be more modernized. In her essay “Project Classroom Makeover”, she points out the outdated education system, and the benefits, technology can have on the failing American education system.

“New Class(room) War” effectively illustrates the point that suppressing technology in the classroom to limit disruption as opposed to supporting it is a battle the teachers know they are going to lose. (Freedman par. 17) This is inevitable because new technologies for entertainment, learning, and communication are constantly being developed; this provides an infinite number of ways to deviate from classwork electronically that nobody had access to as little as twenty years ago. This detriment to society that is disguised as a miracle has teachers referring to the array of modern media devices as today’s equivalent of “pigtail-pulling, spitball-lobbing, and notebook-doodling.” that took place in the classrooms of the pre-computer era. (Freedman par.6)

The biggest problem with today’s education is how rapid technology is advancing. So rapid, in fact, that schools are attempting to keep up, but are sadly falling short. Teachers are being required to incorporate new technology into their everyday methods of teaching. The use of IPads or laptops in classrooms can be helpful to both teachers and students(edreform online classes)”. If a teacher is not overly familiar with the new devices, then the students will lose what little time they have to learn. As a teacher is attempting to fix technical problems in one class, the class that has a tech savvy teacher will be advancing far ahead. On the other hand, if a classroom is full of students who are very unfamiliar with the technology will have to be taught how to operate it, which wastes valuable time. In today’s society technology usage is so much more widespread than it was just five years ago. The new toys can allow schools to broaden their curriculum. Since most work can be done on a single device, kids can work at their own pace and potentially reach heights they could never reach with book, pen, and paper. The benefits of this new tech greatly outweigh the downsides. The biggest problem with technology in classrooms is their lack of use. So few schools have jumped on board with these programs, and therefore are holding their kids back. These products are readily available, but “the use of new technology

Technology in the school has become an increasingly challenging and somewhat disruptive aspect in today’s educational system. In order to maintain what is considered the status quo, schools have focused their energy and resources on banning cell phones, wireless Internet and blocking social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter in schools. However, as technology continues to grow in our society outside of the school, many believe that effectively involving these technologies into the classroom can ultimately improve student engagement in their learning environments. This research paper will focus on both sides of the argument and ultimately seek to determine if there is a best practice regarding technological being put into schools.

Technology is all over our minds and concerns whether in regard to social impact, dependency or its use at educational institutions. It is currently the most debated issue in our modern society. Technology, it is believed, will become necessary for our survival in the future. It is the agent who will preserve the human race. The use of technology in classrooms is one example that the future will be better and students will turn out to be multi-dimensional in their thought processes and in the application of knowledge in future. Critics are always there. It is argued that technology in the classroom is a distraction in gaining information from lectures, and it is playing a negative impact on the minds of young generation. Is it really technology which is a source of disruption or is it individually based? A thought which is worth considering! Technology is the faster way to grow the education up in the future.

Teachers are implementing new technology in the classroom often and with encouraging results. Now, a person on the other side of this argument may claim that technology in the classroom leads to an even larger social gap, due to the lack of communication between teacher and student. This claim has no ground, however, as technology has been implemented in a way that compliments the teaching. For example, in my Advanced Math Analysis class, my teacher has 25 iPads in the corner of the room. When a student is having trouble comprehending a concept, my teacher uses an iPad to show the student detailed 3D representations of the mathematical concept. In this way, technology promotes educational growth while making the teacher's job much easier. While technology may indeed hinder personal contact between people, it compensates by bettering the human race in almost all other facets. Mass connection, emergency communication, and education are just a select few of the benefits of modern technology. Entertainment and innovation are more products of this technology. In the future, as technology continues to advance, I believe it will simply be further integrated with our culture. This means we will discover even more

According to a PBS Learning Media national survey that took place in 2013, 7 in 10 K-12 teachers stated that educational technology allows them to do much more than they ever could do for the education of their students. (Melissa Mills) But are their opinions supported by facts? Modern technology hasn’t always been a mainstay in the classroom, but in recent decades our education system has been reforming to rely more heavily on technology to create a better learning environment for all students. This recent reformation of teaching styles and addition of tools has been studied very thoroughly in recent years, and there are several different conclusions that people have drawn about the benefits and drawbacks of making technology a major aspect of the modern classroom. Some studies seem to prove that technology in the classroom allows for students to get more engaged in their learning, while other studies show that technology is distracting students and hindering their ability to learn. These discrepancies in results in the studies have led to a strong willed debate that has been going on for a long time now in the private and public education system.

Technology is everywhere, it is involved in almost every part of our culture. It affects how we live, work, play, and most importantly learn. With technology being such a fundamental part of our lives and growing each day, it only makes sense that schools incorporate technology in the classrooms. Even though many people support the use of technology in schools, there are those that have concerns about the effectiveness of technology and whether or not it undermines education to solely prepare students for the workforce. Despite the concerns, technology is being integrated with classroom lessons daily, and proving how beneficial it is for student success.

Technology has revolutionized the human experience by changing the way one learns. Technology can best be defined as a tool that supports and promotes human learning. This can be seen through the usage of calculators, tablets (example: iPad), Smart Boards, video cameras, and, of course, the computer. These are all innovations that can have a profound impact on classroom learning. Although there are some schools that have a strict policy that technology should be removed from the modern day classroom, other schools believe that integrating technology into the classroom helps prepare our students for the elaborate world they will face going forward. Throughout this essay, I will be focusing on the technology policy and how it has a positive

Technology has dramatically influenced our modern day culture in several ways; we now operate completely different compared to the past. In fact, it can be shown in many tasks that we very rarely complete a simple operation without the use of technology. For example, washing dishes, heating food, doing our homework, and even communication are all examples of how technology has evolved simple tasks. Even furthermore, technology has changed the way education has been taught and received in American classrooms. However, technology was not always so highly advanced in American schools. In fact, a classroom in the 1950’s had little to no technology; one would find blackboards, chalk, handouts, and quite possibly a film-strip projectors. However, even the “advancement” of a film-strip projector required much work, due to the fact that many teachers were obligated to travel great distances to retrieve a film-strip for the projector (Cuban, Larry). On the contrary, things have significantly changed in the 21st century American classroom. In fact, it would be quite common to see laptops, televisions, and other cutting-edge technology in a significant amount of public schools. Although, the evolution of technology within the classroom has created several conflicting ideas and opinions, technology is continuing to increase in classrooms every day. In fact, technology has drastically changed the American classroom since the 1950’s, thus shaping the way students learn and increasing

Today’s society is a world of increasing technology. Everyday, there are technological advances in all different fields. Technology has made things much more accessible, doable, efficient, and faster. However, when this is depicted in television shows and movies, technological classrooms are perceived as futuristic. For example, in an episode of the popular Nickelodeon show iCarly, Carly imagines going to a school in the future and the focus is on technology. Producers of this media do not realize that these classrooms do exist and can exist. It is important that the future of our nation, the students, are taught technology skills and the necessary knowledge to use these programs and devices. A popular debate in many school systems is the use of technology in the classrooms. Many people believe that it is time for traditional textbooks to be replaced, while some support tradition. While some people may value the tangible, printed, hardcover textbooks we are all so familiar with, the benefits of online textbooks outweigh this universal tradition of education through cost benefits, accessibility, weight, improving standardized test scores, environmental factors, and the endless possibilities tablets offer.

Since the introduction of the first personal computer in the 1980’s, technology has become a big part in the way teachers interact with their classes. As the availability of new technologies become more rapidly available a teacher’s role in the classroom changes to a facilitator or moderator. More and more information is being put on line each day, student’s have access to a whole new source of information that was not available to students in previous times. With this being said, should technology be used in today’s classrooms?

My father-in-law, Cameron, was born in 1920 in the small Quaker community of Salem, Ohio. He and his younger sister, Elma, grew up attending the one-room schoolhouse in their village. Children in the first grade through eighth attended this schoolhouse and shared only one teacher. During this time technology was limited to a pencil and paper, and chalk and slate. In just a few generations, we see today’s modern classroom as a vastly different environment. Educators now regularly incorporate the use of laptops, digital projectors/Smart Boards, tablets/iPads, Chromebooks, and digital cameras as well as mobile phone devices and iPods. These hardware devices also supply a continuous development of software and applications to be used

Technology has made great strides in the past 20 years. It plays a very important role in our lives today and even plays a critical role in the way students learn all over the world. Unfortunately, students now rely on technology instead of learning key fundamentals. Technology has replaced the need to learn and most answers are just a google search away. Technology has also become expensive and lower socioeconomic school districts have found affording the newest technology difficult because of their lack of funding. Technology is a great learning tool when used appropriately. The lower socioeconomic school falls behind in the expanding frontier of technology in the classroom because they cannot afford it compared to their counterparts and results in a gap in education. The development of technology in the classroom has caused students to fail the learning of fundamentals and has exploited lower socioeconomic school districts.